Metallic wire for roller comb

ABSTRACT

METALLIC WIRE TO BE MOUNTED ON A ROLLER COMB FOR SEPARATING FIBROUS WEB FROM A DOFFER, WHICH CONSISTS OF AN UPPER WORKING SECTION WITH SAW TEETH ON THE TOP AND A BASE, THE HEIGHT AND PITCH OF THE SAW TEETH BEING, RESPECTIVELY, 1-10 MM. AND 2-30 TEETH PER INCH, AND EACH TOOTH BEING OF A CONFIGURATION DEFINED BY A SMOOTHLY PROJECTING CURVE WHICH TANGENTIALLY CONTACTS WITH TWO STRAIGHT LINES MEETING THE HORIZONTAL LINE EXTENDING IN THE LONGITUDINAL DIRECTION OF THE METALLIC WIRE, AT THE ANGLES (A) AND (B) OF, RESPECTIVELY, 90-150* AND 30-90*C.

p 1971 MoRlicm WATANABE 3, 97

METALLIC WIRE FOR ROLLER COMB Original Filed Aug. 26, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet l PRIOR ART Mokll cl-l'l WATAIIABE,

INVENTOR avldmluoflizl FHA-ob. ATTORNEYS P 20, 1971 MORlICl-ll WATANABE 3,605,197

umunuc wmn FOR nomm coma Original Filed Aug. 26, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 F/g. 3-4 F/g. 3-5

PRIOR ART F/g. 4-4 F/g 4-5 F/g. 5-4 F/g. 5-5

Moll lCI-ll WATMM IF [NVENTOR ldwlmfi .W 0 M ATTORNEY S Sept. 20, 1971 MORIICHI WATANABE 3,605,197

METALLIC WIVRE FOR ROLLER coma Original Filed Aug. 26, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 MORIICHI WATAIABE INVENT OR ATTORNEYS United States Patent U.S. Cl. 19-114 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Metallic wire to be mounted on a roller comb for separating fibrous web from a doifer, which consists of an upper working section with saw teeth on the top and a base, the height and pitch of the saw teeth being, respectively, 1-10 mm. and 2-30 teeth per inch, and each tooth being of a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve which tangentially contacts with two straight lines meeting the horizontal line extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic wire, at the angles (a) and (B) of, respectively, 90-150" and 3090 C.

This application is a division of my copending application Ser. No. 755,182, filed Aug. 26, 1968, now abandoned.

This invention relates to metallic wire for roller comb of novel construction, which can peel the fibrous web off from the doffer of carding engine without any trouble. Furthermore the invention relates to a process and apparatus for collecting fibrous web from the dotfer during carding operation, without any trouble even when the dotfer is rotating at a high speed.

As is well known, in a carding machine conventionally employed in the field of spinning industry, the lap fed through feel rolls is transferred to the carding cylinder with its top covered with a fiat, by a taker-in mounted with metallic wire. The lap carded in the cylinder is further transferred to a doffer mounted with metallic wire in the form of fibrous web, and peeled off therefrom by means of a dolfer comb (or a fly comb) vibrating at a rate of approximately 1,500 times per minute. Finally the web is collected through the funnel hole in the form of sliver. In this system of employing conventional fly comb, the recovery rate of the fibrous web from the doffer is limited. Therefore it has been proposed to perform the separation of fibrous web from the doffer with a roller comb wound with metallic wire. However, none of the heretofore proposed roller comb is perfectly free from the problems in the peeling action of fibrous web from the dotfer comb, or in the separation and collection of web from the roller comb. Thus, with those roller comb, entanglement of the fibrous web with the dofier or roller comb, or formation of uneven web frequently takes place.

Furthermore, it has been an accepted concept on known metallic wire that in order to assure the transfer of fibers with the saw-tooth portion of the wire, the working angle of each tooth must be acute.

We now discovered, however, that the foregoing drawbacks in known roller combs can be effectively prevented, if a metallic wire with saw teeth of a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve, the two tangents at the two ends of the curve forming the angles of, respectively, 90-150 and 30-90 to the horizontal line extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic wire, is used as the metallic wire for the roller comb.

3,605,197 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 Accordingly, the object of the invention is to provide a novel metallic wire for roller comb with which the separation of fibrous web from the doifer as well as from the roller comb can be easily performed.

Another object of the invention is to provide a process for collecting fibrous web from the doffer, with which it is possible to easily separate and collect fibrous web from the dolfer without any trouble, even when the doifer is rotating at a high speed, in the carding operation of cotton or artificial staple fiber.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a carding machine with which the carded sliver can be prepared at higher efficiencies than those possible with conventional carding machine.

According to the invention, metallic wire to be mounted on a roller comb for separating fibrous web from a dotfer, which consists of an upper working section with saw teeth on the top and a base, the height and pitch of the saw teeth being, respectively, 1-l0 mm. and 2-30 teeth per inch, and each tooth having being of a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve which tangentially contacts with two straight lines meeting the horizontal lines extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic wire, at the angles of, respectively, -150 and 3090.

For a still better understanding of the invention, further explanation will be given with reference to the attached drawings.

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C are respectively a side view,

sectional view and a partially enlarged wide view of the metallic wire of this invention, which are for explaining the dimensions and shapes of the each part of the metallic wire:

FIGS. 2A and 2-B are respectively a side view and sectional view showing the construction of conventional metallic wire:

FIGS. 3-A and 3-H are respectively a side view and sectional view showing the construction of a metallic wire with the saw teeth of the configuration outside the scope of the invention, i.e. saw teeth with pointed vertex, given for the purpose of comparison:

FIGS. 4A and 4-B are respectively a side view and sectional view of one embodiment of the metallic wire of this invention:

FIGS. 5-A and 5-B are respectively a side view and sectional view of another embodiment of the metallic wire of this invention:

FIGS. 6-A and 6-B are respectively a side view and sectional view of still another embodiment of the metallic wire of this invention:

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the arrangement of essential parts of a carding machine useful for practicing the process of this invention: and

FIGS. 8-A and 8B illustrate the action of the web roller under operation of the calendering machine.

Hereinafter the terms denoting the dimensions and numerical values of the parts are used in the present specification and claims with the signifiance as defined with reference to FIGS. 1-A, 1B and 1C as follows:

The metallic wire of the invention consists of base 1 and upper working section 2 with a large number of teeth 3 provided on the top thereof, as illustrated in FIGS. l-A, l-B and 1C. Each tooth has a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve 3 which tangentially contacts with the first line (a) inclined from the horizontal line (c) extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic Wire with an angle (a) of 90l50, preferably 1l0130, and also with the second line (b) which is inclined to the said horizontal line (c) with an angle (pl) of 30-90", preferably 5070 C. In the drawings, the curve is a tangential combination of an arc of circle having a radius R with two arcs of circles of radii, respectively, R and R The teeth of the above-described configuration are disposed on the working section 2 at a pitch of 2-30 per inch, preferably 520 per inch. The height of the notch between any two teeth, viz, the tooth height (A), is 110 mm., preferably 2-5 mm.

In the metallic wire of the invention, the smoothly projecting curve 3 which defines the tooth configuration can be of any optional curved line, so far as the gradient of the tangent gradually decreases from one end of the tooth root to the tooth top, and gradually increases from the tooth top to the other end of the tooth root. The curve may be, for example, a part of a quadratic curve of a parabola, ellipse or circle, or may be a cycloid. Also the curve may be composed of feet of two straight lines and a quadratic curve as above-described which is tangentially continuous to those vertical feet.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1C, the curve 3 can be further defined, besides by the already mentioned factors such as the angles a and 5 of the two tangents (a) and (b) pitch (P) of the teeth and tooth height (A), by

(i) the radius of curvature R at the vertex of the curve 3, and

(ii) the radii of curvatures R and R at the parts at which the said tangents (a) and (b) contact with the curve 3.

The preferred metallic wire in accordance with the invention generally possesses the radii of curvatures as follows:

R 0.1350 mm., preferably 01-170 mm. R at least 0.4 mm. R -at least 0.4 mm.

When the radii of curvatures R and R are identical with the radius of curvature R the curve 3 becomes a part of circumference; and when R and R are infinite, the curve 3 is a part of a quadratic curve which is tangentially continuous to two straight lines.

An important characteristic feature of the metallic wire of this invention is that the minimum working angle of each tooth is at least 90, and each tooth has a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve, that is, the configuration having a curvature at its vertex.

The metallic wires conventionally used in carding machines normally possess, as illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2-B, saw tooth 2 having an acute working angle a. When such metallic wire is mounted on the roller comb, the separation of fibrous web from. the doffer is rather easy, but the separation and collection of the web from the roller comb is difficult. On the other hand, if the working angle a of the saw tooth is made obtuse as illustrated in FIGS. 3-A and 3B, in order to facilitate the separation of fibrous web on the metallic wire of roller comb, the performance is unsatisfactory for any practical purpose. To wit, with such metallic wire, separation failures of the web from the doffer frequently take place.

Surprisingly, it is now discovered that metallic wire with saw teeth having a minimum working angle a of at least 90 and a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve, viz, a configuration having a curvature at the vertex, exhibits quite satisfactory performance. That is, the teeth action on the fibrous web on the doffer is quite sufficient for smooth transfer of the web from the dotfer to the roller comb, and also the separation of Web from the roller comb is facilitated.

In the metallic wire of this invention, the radius of curvature R at the vertex of the tooth is closely correlated 4 with the action of the wire to separate the web from doffer. Regardless the type of fibers used, larger R is preferred for easier separation of fibrous web from the doffer, the particularly preferred range of R being 1-4 mm.

The radius of curvature R at the root portion of the tooth is correlated with the action of the wire to separate the fibrous web from the roller comb. When R is infinite, i.e., when the lower portion of the curve 3 is a straight line, in certain cases separation failure may occur with the frequency in the order of once per 1,000 lbs. of treated fibers, depending on the type of fibers treated. For this reason, the radii of curvatures R and R at the root portions of the tooth are preferably within the range of 110() mm.

In the metallic wire of the invention, any two adjacent teeth are preferably continuous through a valley or trough 4 indicated by radius of curvature R in FIG. 1C. Preferably the radius of curvature R of the trough 4, which is present between curves 3 and 3', is within the range of 0.1- 20 mm., particularly 0.15-l.0 mm.

Operable dimensions and preferred dimensions of the other parts of the metallic wire of this invention are as follows:

The construction of the metallic wire of the invention will be more tangibly explained as to a few exemplary embodiments. l j

in FIGS. 4-A and 4B, the tooth has a configuration defined by the curve formed of an arc of a circle tangentially combined with two straight lines of respectively the angle or and angle 3. It should be obvious to the experts that the straight lines can be replaced by arcs of circles of larger radii of curvatures than that of the are forming the vertex.

In FIGS. 5A and 5B, the tooth has a configuration defined by a parabola 3 tangentially contacting with two straight lines of respectively the angle or and angle {3 (zx+fi:).

In FIGS. 6-A and 6B, the tooth has a configuration defined by a semi-circle tangentially contacting with two straight lines of respectively the angle ,8 (a-f-fl=180).

The steel material of the metallic wire is not critical, but any steel which has been used for known metallic wires can be used. It is of course possible and preferred to impart higher degree of hardness to the upper working section, particularly the vertex portion, by the means known per se.

The mounting of the metallic wire onto the cylinder of roller comb of a carding machine can be effected in the conventional manner well known to the experts. To wit, the metallic wire under a suitable tension is wound onto the predetermined position on the surface of the cylinder of roller comb, with pressing. After the mounting, the surfaces of the metallic wire may be ground, if desired.

The metallic wire thus wound onto the cylinder surface of roller comb normally provides 54,500 teeth, preferably 25500 teeth, per square inch.

Furthermore, the invention provides a process for collecting the fibrous Web in carding procedure, which comprises transferring the fibrous web on a dotfer onto a roller comb by rotating the roller comb at a position close to the circumference of a rotating doffer which is mounted with the fibrous web, at a rate less than the surface speed of the doffer and in the same rotating direction with the dolfer; and simultaneously Withdrawing the fibrous web from roller comb by rotating a smooth-surfaced web roller at a position on the side of the transfer of the fibrous web from the doffer to the roller comb, and close to the circumferences of the doffer and roller comb, at a surface speed of 50-200% of that of the roller comb and in the direction opposite from that'of the roller comb, characterized in that the said roller comb is wound with metallic wire which consists of an upper working section with saw teeth on the top and a base, the height and pitch of the saw teeth being, respectively, 1-10 mm. and 2-30 teeth per inch, and each tooth being of a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve which tangentially contacts with two straight lines meeting the horizontal line extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic wire at the angles of, respectively, 90-150 and 30-90.

The above process of the invention can be easily practiced with a carding machine which comprises a doffer; a roller comb positioned at the opposite side from the cylinder with respect to the perpendicular line from the center of the doffer, and at closely adjacent the circumference of the doifer; a smooth-surfaced web roller positioned below an imaginary line linking the shaft of the roller comb and the center of the doffer, and at closely to the circumferences of the roller comb and doifer; and a means for collecting and withdrawing the fibrous web from the roller comb, characterized in that the roller comb is mounted, by winding, with a metallic wire which consists of an upper working section with saw teeth on the top and a base, the height and pitch of the saw teeth being, respectively, 1-10 mm. and 2-30 teeth per inch,

and each tooth being of a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve which tangentially contacts with two straight lines meeting the horizontal line extending in longitudinal direction of the metallic wire, at the angles of, respectively, 90-15 and 30-90".

The essential parts of an apparatus suited for practicing the process of this invention are shown by cross-section "in FIG. 7 of the attached drawings. Referring to FIG. 7,

a fibrous lap is wound back by a pair of feed rolls and supplied to the tip of a dish plate, to be combed with the saw teeth of a taker-in wound with metallic wire. The fibers are transferred to the saw teeth of a carding cylinder (partially shown as 10) in the form of web, and carded between the saw teeth of the flats and those of the carding cylinder. Thus carded fibers on the saw teeth 11 of carding cylinder 10 are transferred onto the saw teeth 21 of the doffer 20 which is rotating in a direction opposite from that of the cylinder, in the form of fibrous web. Above dish plate, taker-in, carding cylinder, doffer, and their arrangement are themselves well known as the parts and mechanism of conventional carding machine.

In accordance with the invention, a roller comb 30 wound with the above-specified metallic wire 31 is disposed at the opposite side from the cylinder with respect to a perpendicular line passing through the driving shaft 22 of the dolfer 20, and at a close position to the circumference of the same doffer. The roller comb 30 is rotated in the same direction with that of the doffer 20, from the power source of the carding machine through a driving mechanism such as chain, belt or gear (not shown), by means of a driving shaft 32. According to the invention, the surface speed of the roller comb is less than that of the doifer. Preferably the surface speed of the roller comb is 75-95%, inter alia, 80-90%, of the surface speed of doffer. The ratio of diameters between the doffer and roller comb preferably ranges particularly, 4- 4;.

In the conventional process of separating the fibrous web on the doffer by means of a vertically vibrating fiy comb, the rotation speed of the dofier is under a strict restriction. Consequently the increase of production rate of the carded sliver is also impossible beyond certain limits. Whereas, according to the subject invention, the separation of the fibrous webs on the roller comb is easily performable under the surface speed of the doifer varying over a Wide range of 300-20,000 inches/min, using the roller comb mounted with the specified novel metallic wire. Again, with the conventional carding machines equipped with roller combs, it has been an accepted practice to operate the roller comb at a surface speed greater than that of the dolfer. To wit, conventionally the webs held on a doflfer of low rotation speed are separated from the dotfer by a roller oomb rotating at a greater surface speed than that of the doffer. As the result, however, the web held on the conventional roller comb has a thickness less than that of the web on the dolfer, and is separated from the roller comb with considerable difiiculty. Furthermore, in the conventional carding system employing roller comb, the surface speeds of the doffer and cylinder are restricted by that of the roller comb, and consequently it is impossible to increase the operation speed of the carding machine as a whole to improve the production rate of carded sliver beyond a certain level.

Whereas, in accordance with the invention, both the transfer of fibrous web from the dolfer to the roller comb and the separation of web from the roller comb are remarkably facilitated, by the use of the roller comb mounted with the metallic wire having the above-specified upwardly curved saw teeth, and also by making the surface speed of the roller comb less than that of the dotfer. That is, according to the mechanism as employed in this invention, the thickness of the fibrous web on the roller comb increases in comparison with that of the web on the doffer, in inverse proportion to the surface speed ratio between the two. Consequently the mutual entanglement (friction) of the fibers increases, and thick web layer on the roller comb exerts sufiicient force on the thin and hard-separable web layer on the doffer to assist easy separation of the latter. Also the separation of web from the roller comb is facilitated by the above-described action as well as centrifugal force of the roller comb. (The specified configuration of the saw tooth of the metallic wire remarkably enhance the action of centrifugal force.)

Further in accordance with the invention, a web roller 10 is disposed below the imaginary line linking the center of doffer 20 and shaft of roller comb 30 (i.e., in the rotating direction of the roller comb with respect to the said line), and at a position close to the circumferences of the roller comb and dotfer.

The web roller 40 has a smooth surface, and is rotated counter to the rotation of roller comb, from the power source of the carding machine, through a suitable drawing mechanism such as gear, chain or belt, by means of a driving shaft 41. The preferred surface speed of the Web roller ranges 50200%, particularly -120% of the surface speed of the roller comb. The diameter ratio between the doffer and the web roller is preferably within the range of The provision of the web roller facilitates the withdrawal of fibrous web from the roller comb. The web separated from the web roller and withdrawn therefrom is led to a web guide plate 50 with two side walls gradually approaching to each other toward one end, and compressed by a pair of calender rollers 61 and 62 into a sliver. The sliver is collected into a can through a coiler (not shown).

In the apparatus of the invention, the clearance between the roller comb and doifer is preferably in the order of -Vmoo inch, Particularly 71000- 71 inch. Also the clearance between the roller comb and web roller, and that between the Web roller and doifer, may be each within the range of 0-1 inch, particularly /2 inch.

Another advantage of the process and apparatus of the invention is that the operation of passing the web through the calender and the coiler head is extremely facilitated. As illustrated in FIG. '8-A, when a new fiber lap is to be supplied to the carding machine, the fibrous web 101 on the dofrer 20 is peeled off by the saw teeth 31 of roller comb 30, and temporarily stays in a volution form 102 in the triangular space formed by the doffer 20, roller comb 30, and web roller 40. When the volute web 102 completely fills the triangular space, it is discharged s a single mass from the space between the roller comb and web roller, as illustrated in FIG. 8-B. Thus the initial drawing operation of fibrous web at the starting time of the carding operation can be easily performed.

Hereinafter the invention will be explained with reference to the following example.

EXAMPLE The metallic wire as illustrated in FIGS. l-A, l-B and l-C of the dimensions below was mounted on a roller comb of 137 mm. in diameter.

Total height (H)3 mm.

Tooth height (A)1 mm.

Base thickness (C)0.8 mm.

Tip thickness (B)0.25 mm. Medium thickness (C)-0.35 mm. Tooth pitch (P)14/inch Minimum working angle (a)-120 Maximum back angle (,8)-60 R10.15 mm.

R and R (each)l4 mm. R 0.35 mm.

This roller comb and a web roller of 47 mm. in diameter were mounted in a conventional carding machine having a doffer of 27 inches in diameter, at the relative positions as indicated in FIG. 7.

The surface speeds of the doffer, roller comb, and web roller, and the clearances therebetween were as follows:

Surface speed (inch/min):

Doffer 42,420 Roller comb 3,600 Web roller 2,340 Clearances (inch):

Between dolfer and roller comb Between roller comb and web roller Between web roller and doffer A A raw cotton lap produced in U.S.A. was supplied to the feed rolls of the carding machine in the purpose of manufacturing cotton yarn of 20 counts. During the processing of 1,000 lbs. of the lap, no separation failure of fibrous web took place either from the dolfer or from the roller comb.

For the purpose of comparison, the similar carding was performed with the same carding machine except that the roller comb was mounted with the metallic wire having conventionally shaped saw teeth. The working angl (a) of the saw tooth was 79 and the back angle ([3) was 101. As the result, while no trouble occurred in the separation of fibrous wet from the dotler, separation failures from the roller comb took place with the frequency of at least 30 times per 100 lbs. of the cotton lap processed.

Also when the configuration of the saw tooth on the metallic wire of roller comb was changed to that having a pointed vertex, the working angle being 120 and back angle ([3) being 60, when the separation failure of fibrous web from the dolfer took place at least 3 times per lbs. of the lap, and that from the roller comb also occurred with the frequency of at least 2 times per 1,000 lbs, of the lap carded.

I claim:

1. Metallic wire to be mounted on a roller comb for separating fibrous web from a doffer, said wire comprising an upper working section with saw teeth on the top and a base, the height and pitch of the saw teeth being, respectively 1-5 mm., and 5-20 teeth per inch, and each tooth being of a configuration defined by a smoothly pr jecting curve which tangentially contacts with two straight lines meeting the horizontal line extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic wire, at the angles (a) and (,8) of, respectively, 90-150 and 30-90", the points of tangency between said curve and said two straight lines being in the lower half of said tooth height.

2. The metallic wire of claim 1 in which the radius Of curvature (R at the vertex of said curve is within the range of 0.1-4 mm.

3. The metallic wire of claim 1 in which the radii f curvatures (R and R at the tangentially contacting positions of said curve with said two straight lines are each at least 1 mm.

4. The metallic wire of claim 1 in which the angle on is -130 and said angle [3 is 50-70".

5. Metallic wire to be mounted on a roller comb for separating fibrous web from a doffer, said wire comprising an upper working section with saw teeth on the top and a base, the height and pitch of the teeth being, respectively, 1-5 min. and 5-20 teeth per inch, and each tooth being a configuration defined by a smoothly projecting curve which tangentially contacts with two straight lines meeting the horizontal line extending in the longitudinal direction of the metallic wire, at the angles (a and {3) of, respectively, 90150 and 3090, the radius of curvature (R at the vertex of said curve being 0.1-4 mm., and the radii of curvatures (R and R at the tangentially contacting positions of said curve with said two straight lines being each at least 1 mm., the points of tangency betwen said curve and said two straight lines being in the lower half of said tooth height.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,204,297 9/1965 Wada 19-114 3,235,911 2/1966 Reiterer l9-106 3,391,429 7/1968 Watanabe 191l4 FOREIGN PATENTS 737 1879 Great Britain. 499,210 1/ 1939 Great Britain.

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner 

